I spent the last 4 days up north visiting my mother and some friends from college and high school. I traveled from Portland to Seattle using only public transportation, which was liberating. I said goodbye to someone who is as important to me as my opposable thumbs. I ran in to family members that make my stomach turn. I got really drunk and still managed to get in to jammies and keep my shoes on. I caught up with old friends and remembered how much fun being a teenager had been but how much more fun it is to be in my 20’s. I got complimented on the street about my sense of style.

There are a lot of people I know who claim to have intense wanderlust, but I feel like most of us have only moved where we had to. We talk about travel, but we never move around. I had a long conversation about just leaving everything. I am making plans. Last night when I got home and was no longer in physical motion I felt this immense wave of depression. Post-travel sadness. It’s past now, but it made me want to keep going more than ever.

Did you ever notice how we say grandmother and grandma but never grandmom?

No Pants 2011 has been really successful thus far. As I said, I have been complimented on the street about how I dress and I feel that at this point the challenge has brought out a creativity and a personality that I hadn’t mastered before. And I feel empowerment in taking a traditionally feminine (weak) style of dress and making it versatile and powerful. I can still climb trees and keep warm. Which was a big part of the point.